Honesty

I blinked a few times as the familiar noise of London waking burst its way through the cracks in the Leaky Cauldron. My head was aching as the memories of last night came flooding back and I felt a slight ache in my heart. I couldn't pretend I hadn't done anything wrong with Tom, I'd made mistakes too so maybe I was being too harsh. Maybe if we sat down and talked about it, we could sort things out. Maybe we could go back to how we were in the beginning. I sighed walking over to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I barely recognised the girl staring back, my hair looked dull and weak and there was no fight left in my eyes. The cuts on my cheek from the wall had bruised badly and somehow, the cut on my head looked worse now than it did before. I couldn't help but wondering whether I could actually trust Malfoy though, it's kind of felt like a trap. I'd only ever known him to hate me. Why would he even care about anything to do with my relationship, it's not like he can understand it.

Casting a quick glamour charm, I changed into a warm jumper and some jeans before making my way back down to the bar hoping to catch some breakfast before I left. I'd barely reached the edge of the stairs before I spotted him, Malfoy was sat expectantly waiting on a table with two plates in front of him. His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked my way before he stood carefully. It was weird seeing him this way and even Tom the barman seemed cautious as he gave me a curious look. I sent a nod his way to let him know it was ok, before sitting opposite Malfoy.

"Good morning Malfoy." I said quietly tucking into the bacon and toast Malfoy had placed out for me.

"How are you?" Malfoy asked tentatively before sitting back down opposite me.

"I'm fine, I think I might have over-reacted last night. It was just an argument." I said refusing to look at him. I didn't fancy seeing the condescending look in his eyes, trying to tell me what to do.

"Don't do that." Malfoy replied shortly not appearing to care whether I met his eye or not.

"Do what?" I snapped back, I could see why Tom always argued with me, I was very quick to snap.

"Don't make it seem like no big deal. The Granger I knew had nothing but fight in her, she wouldn't stand for this, and she wouldn't use a glamour charm to cover the marks either." Malfoy hissed quietly waving his wand and I knew he was removing the charm. I tried to turn away from him so he wouldn't know that it looked worse than it was. After a few seconds Malfoy's hand gently graced my chin and turned my head before he carefully rubbed his thumb along the line of my cheek. I flinched at first, but I couldn't help as my eyes flashed across to him. I looked into his silver orbs and for once I could see something genuine behind those eyes.

"Why do you care?" I asked softly, hearing the break in my own voice.

"I have my reasons. It isn't right the way he's treated you; I know it's hard to walk away, I know it hurts to admit what's happening but don't go back." My breath caught in my throat as he spoke. I couldn't explain what this feeling was, but I knew in that moment I trusted him.

"Can you help me?" I mumbled choking on my own words as tears formed in my eyes at the strange sense of relief, I felt at even the thought of not seeing Tom again. How could I love him and feel relieved at leaving him all at once?

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to help you." Malfoy replied quietly removing his hand and looking like he was almost relieved that I'd finally agreed. Finally, I let the tears roll down my face and Malfoy stood quickly.

"Come on, let's go somewhere a little more private for you." He said giving me a supportive arm before he helped me out the door of the pub and apparated us away.

We landed in a large room with a huge fireplace. It looked like something as grand as Malfoy Manor, but I knew we weren't at Malfoy Manor, that was a place forever ingrained into my nightmares. Still the thick tears rolled down my cheeks and I couldn't help the sobs that wracked my body.

"Here, you settle into that seat and I'll grab you a blanket." Malfoy said gesturing towards a large sofa in front of the fireplace. With a flick of his wand, huge flames burst from the fireplace and spread warmth around the room. Curling up on the sofa I took a few deep breaths and tried my best to stop panicking. I couldn't control what was happening in my body but today felt like everything was about to change again. Malfoy came back and handed me a blanket and a box of tissues.

"I'm not great with crying people but I guess I'm supposed to say I'm here for you." He added nervously as he passed me the box, I couldn't help but laugh at how terrible he was with emotions. I suppose growing up the way he did it would be hard when emotions were considered weak.

"I… just don't know how to leave Tom in the past, I don't know if I want to." I spoke into the silence, was it even possible to just be gone from someone's life without actually being gone?

"This will be weird coming from me of all people, but you have to for your own health and It's simple really, we're going to ghost him." Malfoy said matter-of-factly, springing into action now that he realised, I wasn't wanting to discuss feelings.

"We have to what him?" I asked, confused. Did he plan on using some form of dark magic to make Tom vanish? Malfoy chuckled darkly as he studied my confused face.

"Well my guess is you don't want to use magic on him despite how much the scumbag deserves it. So other than my personal choices of killing, torturing or erasing his memory, we do it the muggle way. I help you to cut off all contact and all possible links he has too you, it won't be easy and I'm not going to say you won't feel hurt by it because you will but essentially, as far as he is concerned we make you vanish." I stared shocked at Malfoy; how did he know all of this?

"Have you done this before?" I asked before I could help myself. His face changed slightly as I spoke and his eyes went distant for a second as if he was remembering something he didn't want to.

"Let's just say a lot has changed for me." He replied quietly before looking away. I decided not to push the issue any further as it was clearly something he didn't want to talk about.

"What do I do about all of my stuff? Where will I go?" I asked suddenly, I couldn't just lose everything we'd built together over the last year. Some of the last things my parents left me were in that house and I wasn't ready to lose it. Malfoy sat for a few moments and thought about it carefully.

"You'll have to go back, wait until he's gone and get your stuff and then apparate it here if you want to." Again Malfoy wasn't looking at me as he spoke and I knew he didn't want me to feel like he was pushing me or anything. It was almost sweet if it wasn't Malfoy.

"No, I couldn't impose on you, that wouldn't be fair." I replied, I couldn't exactly go to Ron, I'd barely spoken to him in a year, Ginny and I had fallen out and I'd pushed her away and I couldn't tell Harry, I didn't want him to take pity on me, and get Ginny to be ok with me moving in but I couldn't be that much of a burden on the exact people I'd isolated myself from.

"Granger, my guess is your friends don't know what things are like for you and this house is bigger than I'm ever going to need, you can have the south wing all to yourself, it's big enough that you wouldn't even see me if you didn't want to. Just take the space until you get on your feet. I'd rather know you had a place than risk you going back to him." Again his voice was dark and he wasn't quite looking my way. This was all very strange but there was something in the way he spoke and acted that made me trust him.

"Thank you Malfoy, I'll take the room, I'll get my stuff today and tonight I'll come back here. There's no one else around here that will care is there?" I asked glancing around and realising for the first time just how empty this house felt. I noticed a flash of what I guessed was relief across his face before we fell into a comfortable silence once more.

"Well Malfoy, I guess I best go." I spoke a few seconds later, not sure what to say next. To say we were a strange pairing was an understatement but for the first time, someone made me see that I wasn't being myself and the cuts and bruises on my face only proved that I needed help somewhere.

"I'll get the South wing ready for when you're back. Good luck, and no matter what he says, try to remember this wasn't the first time, and if leaving was easy things like this wouldn't ever happen." I nodded as we both stood to our feet and I walked towards the window ready to apparate whilst Malfoy made his way to the door.

"Oh and Granger?" Malfoy's made me turn around just as he reached the door.

"Yes?" I replied looking him up and down properly for the first time, he had a slight glint in his eye as he finally smirked again.

"You can call me Draco if you want."

******End of Chap*****

Hope everyone is having a good day! Here's chapter two! This story is incredible close to my heart and I hope you're all enjoying it. Do we think Draco really changed? Why is he helping Hermione? And How will Hermione cope facing Tom so soon? Let me know what you think! Sending love xoxo